It’s December! Cookbook Giveaways – Sugar Cookies and More!

But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. Psalm 5:11

In the immortal words of the late Erma Bombeck:Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart!

It’s December. I am so excited. It snowed this week in Tennessee. The deer are gathering around mom’s bird feeder and cleaning up! 🙂 My cupboards are over-flowing with butter, flour, sugar, sprinkles, chocolate, nuts, peppermint, and cookbooks … oh, I am so excited and happy!THANK YOU to my long time friend Sandy Boyer who has provided the fabulous picture of one of her trays of Christmas cookies for me to use on my blog header. The only other best thing would be if I were actually eating some of those cookies! Sandy will make 10 trays of cookies for gifts this season. She bakes and decorates 15 different kinds of cookies and each tray holds 8 DOZEN! You don’t have to be a math whiz to know that is ALOT of butter, flour, sugar, eggs and sprinkles!!! Thank you Sandy for sharing this photo! As if I am not excited enough — I am doubly excited about a giveaway I am doing during December. Do you like cookbooks? Do you have a cookbook collection? Do you buy a cookbook just to look at the pictures? I have four different wonderful cookbooks that I want to giveaway in December. But, I need your help! In order to be registered for the drawing, I need you to subscribe to this blog and then leave a comment on the designated drawing day. For instance, next Monday (December 5) I will post a picture of the first book to be given away. All you need to do is leave a comment that day to be entered in to the drawing. The “catch” is that we need to have 25 comments in order to give the book away. I ask you to get your friends, co-workers, mom, neighbor, anyone connected to cyberspace, to also leave a comment so that we can get at least 25 and give away the book!!! Easy as that!

On to our first cookies of the season. It seems only fitting to me these are Sugar Cookies! This is a SHARE recipe from Sandy Boyer. This is not the recipe she uses for her cut out cookies but rather a melt-in-your-mouth, make 4 dozen cookies in a little over an hour, wonderfully tasty sugar cookie. My two culinary consultants and I had lots of fun making these. One of my consultants worked her fingers to the bone dipping sugar while the other one assisted in the taste test! All around we give this recipe a thumbs up for this season! However, there was the moment in time when I added the oil while the mixer was on high speed. The floor wasn’t the only thing I needed to clean up 🙂 In between shopping and wrapping, don’t forget to take some time for a little pot of tea and some sweet sugar cookies while remembering “the reason for the season” when Love came down to earth. Monday, December 5 will be our first giveaway for a cookbook this season. Be sure and add your email to our subscription service and then on Monday leave a comment to be automatically entered in the contest! Good luck!

Mix all dry ingredients together and stir into the wet ingredients.

Use small scoop 1.5" diameter and roll into balls.Drop balls into sugar and lightly coat.

Bake at 375 degrees F. for 10 minutes. They will be light colored but done at 10 minutes. If you want them crispy and brown add another minute or two. They will flatten out some when they bake so make sure you leave enough room for them to spread slightly.

Catherine, I hadn’t even THOUGHT about using COLORED sugar for these cookies — what a WONDERFUL holiday idea! Thankfully, I haven’t baked these this season yet, so I plan to incorporate YOUR idea using colored sugars! Two heads are certainly better than one! Thanks for sharing, Girlfriend!

Sandy thanks for sharing your picture and your recipe. These Sugar Cookies really are the best we have ever eaten. They are still soft in the middle and slightly crunchy on the outside, just like I like them! Monday starts the cookbook giveaway… stay tuned! Have a great weekend.